Where does the will to go on come from?

December 8, 2013 11:25 PM

In a rare study involving direct brain stimulation, Michael Greicius, a neurologist at Stanford University, and collaborators say they have uncovered direct evidence that a brain region known as the anterior midcingulate cortex and its surrounding network play a central role in motivation and a readiness to act.
posted by headspace (8 comments total)

The Cingulate Cortex Does Everything (pdf). From The Annals of Improbably Research.
posted by logicpunk at 12:23 AM on December 9, 2013 [2 favorites]

Full text of the study, "Dissociable Intrinsic Connectivity Networks for Salience Processing and Executive Control" by William W. Seeley, Vinod Menon, Alan F. Schatzberg, Jennifer Keller, Gary H. Glover, Heather Kenna, Allan L. Reiss, and Michael D. Greicius, is on NIH Public Access as well as the Journal of Neuroscience. Options!

Singer's journalism pushes hard on the idea that this is more than just another "we located the area of the brain where X happened".
posted by daveliepmann at 12:25 AM on December 9, 2013 [1 favorite]

Interesting. After that paper about how men's brains were wired front to back and women's side-to-side, the level of probable over-interpretation going on here seems refreshingly minimal.
posted by Segundus at 1:04 AM on December 9, 2013

I too would like to thank cortex for driving our will to persevere.
posted by allkindsoftime at 1:19 AM on December 9, 2013 [13 favorites]

So that's the bit I have missing.
It's just a pity I can't be arsed to do anything about it.
posted by fullerine at 2:52 AM on December 9, 2013 [7 favorites]

So if I rub a 9-volt battery against the roof of my mouth, everything will be fine, right?
posted by DarkForest at 6:25 AM on December 9, 2013

A broader look, involvingthe same study and paper, from NPR/KQED's Amy Standen: Epilepsy Patients Help Decode The Brain's Hidden Signals
posted by twsf at 8:01 AM on December 9, 2013 [1 favorite]

So if I rub a 9-volt battery against the roof of my mouth, everything will be fine, right?

Pssht, everyone knows magnets are where its at.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 11:33 AM on December 9, 2013